Vison of Life...It speaks about my views towards what's happening around us, though many of the things represents Pune, a becoming Metro in Maharashtra,India yet most of us live in similar city life. In city day to day life all we face is problems around us; from traffic to water to slums to power supply & many more, but who has solutions? That's why the name
Vison of Life!
Sanjay Deshpande

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

A Lesson Named Avni !

--

“Tigers, except
when wounded or when man-eaters, are on the whole very good-tempered...Occasionally
a tiger will object to too close an approach to its cubs or to a kill that it
is guarding. The objection invariably takes the form of growling, and if this
does not prove effective it is followed by short rushes accompanied by
terrifying roars. If these warnings are disregarded, the blame for any injury
inflicted rests entirely with the intruder"-… Jim Corbett

“Hundreds of false
rumors of alleged attacks by the man-eater were brought to us, entailing
endless miles of walking, but this was only to be expected, for in an area in
which an established man-eater is operating everyone suspects their own
shadows, and every sound heard at night is attributed to the
man-eater.” … Jim Corbett

Well, no need to introduce that name
to the wild lifers yet for those who are not exposed to wild life except the
occasional sighting of a sparrow or bulbul (that too is rare now) in the
backyard of their buildings last remaining trees in Pune & Mumbai like
cities as well for those whose exposure is restricted to only news papers &
TV channels & who by now must have been thinking Avani aka T 1 is name of
some alien as so much publicity she has got! (Sadly post death only, which is
usual in our country for e.g. with due respect Nirbhaya case). Well, for all
such people, Jim Corbett was probably the best wild lifer (I never like to call
him as tiger hunter, not even man eater tiger’s hunter) this country ever has
witnessed, spent all life in forest in Himalayan ranges i.e. Gharwal/Kumaun
& is an authority on tiger behavior & documented his experiences about
tigers & forest in four wonderful books which unfortunately are more
popular for his chess to kill the tigers which has become man eater. We the
Indians (again with all due respect to patriots here) are always been poor in
learning from history may it be ancient or even just a century back that of
Corbett’s times! He has been called when a tiger or leopard turns man eater
(then also with many more tigers living as well land under forests) to track it
& kill it, a job in which he was master but never liked it! He could track
& kill any man-eater tiger not because he was a sharp shooter or liked
hunting, he could do that because he has studied the forest along with tiger thoroughly
as well he has studied the people amongst with the man-eater tigers used to
roam & hunt! Or unless in above two quotes he wouldn’t have been able to display
his affection towards tigers as well the need of killing them when it becomes
man-eater! Well, he has mentioned the causes of a tiger becoming man-eater too
which we conveniently are neglecting since last nearly hundred years!

Now the stage is set for Avani the
tigress in news & most of you must be knowing that she was a tigress who
became man-eater i.e. started killing humans than her usual prey i.e. deer or
wild buffalos so forest dept which is supposedly in charge of wild life in our
State has to get rid of her, either by capturing her or killing her, ending the
drama by later action i.e. killing of Avani tigress, oh her forest name was T1.
Again for many who won’t understand that were there two tigresses i.e. Avani
& T 1, well, mostly a tiger or tigress gets local proper name from the area
it’s been taken birth or roams around or it gets name when some guide or local
people starts calling it by a name they feel appropriate (which I think is the
case of Avani). But forest dept can’t keep record with such names as every
tiger is different biologically so after the census they name it like T1, T 2, T3
etc & these names are given by the seniority of the tiger in that
particular forest i.e. there can be T1 in Kanha forest as well a T1 in Tadoba
range but both T1 are different!

Sorry y for the detailing but with due
respect to all die hard wild lifers whose number is very less in 120 crores of
Indians, what we lack most when it comes to wild life conservation i.e.
awareness of common man towards wild life in general leave apart details like
above! So I thought it’s important to put the case in detail, right from
tigress name. I won’t boast myself as wild life expert but I am fortunate to
have much more exposure of forests, tigers, local people around the forest
& yes forest dept & that’s why many of my friends has whatsapped me or
mailed me that can I write my views about the entire Avani tigress killing! Again
we have many experts, conservationists as well senior forest officers yet many
a times a same event can be tagged as wrong or right, bad or good depending up
on which side you are standing on! And with a little bit exposure of all sides
related to wild life I feel what we lack most is the balanced stand ( I am
referring to our rulers also especially the ministers involved in twitting as
well in news papers) when something like this happens!

Now let’s see what is reason behind so
much hohllah, over Avani the tigress is; she is from forests in Vidarbha region
i.e. east side of our State which is, in & around Yeotmal district
(incidentally most deaths by suicide of farmers, happens in Yeotmal
district). One more thing she is with
cubs which are nearly eleven months old & that makes the entire event more controversial
as at this age the cubs can’t survive on their own & if not captured that
means sure death for them also after the death of their mom i.e. Avani. Now
thing is since last two years this Avani tigress has become man-eater means as
mentioned earlier she started killing humans as her food & that’s dangerous
especially when she is not in reserved forests. Again for those reserved
forests like Tadoba or Kanha National Parks means human movements are
restricted or ban in these forests so there are less chances of a tiger
becoming man-eater while the forest in which Avani was residing are habituated
by humans also means she has easy access to human life. Well why she has become
man-eater only she can tell us which is not possible now (wasn’t ever any ways)
but issue is what we do once we know a tiger has started not just killing
humans but eating them too? With due respect I am as serious wild lifer as any
person who will be reading this piece yet please try to understand it’s easy to
sit in your 10th floored apartment in Pune & Mumbai & write
your views about how its shame to kill an innocent tiger but imagine you have a
small piece of land in a village remote from any civilization, not even proper
mobile net-work there (not even Geo), no electricity but your life depends on
whatever you grow in your farm, so you have to go out in open & work in
your farm! You have no weapon except some lathi or axe & yes you are used t
work along with you wife or old mom or dad. And one more thing your small kids
go to school which is one or two kilometers away from your home in your farm
& there is no school bus service here so they have to walk to their school.
One more thing, your home doesn’t have toilet inside the way apartments in Pune
has & at night you or any of your family member has to go either walking
few meters in darkness to the toilet block or in open, for nature call at
night! Well, now imagine a tiger is roaming in your area & she kills humans
& eats, what will be your reaction? I wonder how many of people who are
shamming the govt (read forest dept) for killing Avani has actually gone there
& stayed with farmers or local peoples who were living in this terror &
do mind this I am not saying, the terror of a man-eater tiger Mr. Jim Corbett
has described nearly eight years back in this very country, only thing is we
forget history & it does repeats!

And once a tiger becomes man- eater he
becomes ten times more dangerous as it’s a smart animal, a born killer for its
prey! As imagine when a tiger can hunt animals as fast like deer or as strong
as Indian gaur (bison is a wrong name) what chance a toothless, speedless,
hornless, visionless (in dark) & strengthless animal like human can have
against it as a prey? Yet there were pleas by many wild life lovers
(conservationists) not to kill Avani but tranquilize her & keep in
captivity. Now the doubts or rules books are being shown that a tiger neither
can be tranquilized nor killed after darkness i.e. night time & Avani has
been shot at night. Well, rules books are written by the humans, for the humans
& Avani wasn’t a human (good for her or no one would have given a damn for
her death)! When a tiger becomes man-eater it is smart enough to know that it’s
better to prefers to move at night as its prey is at its weakest in dark i.e.
humans! For two months after officially declaring Avani as man-eater & even
Courts (well as usual every dispute in this country ends in Court i.e.
judicially & Avani wasn’t exception) left decision to forest dept to kill
or tranquilize Avani, entire force was searching for her & couldn’t find
her as they were searching in day light. A tigress with cubs is always very cautious
in her movements, even in reserved forests (apologies to tigresses Maya &
Tara from Tadoba) & here she has become man-eater, just read Corbett books
again how clever a tiger can become in such case! So personally I don’t think
that forest dept didn’t tried to capture her as well tranquilize though even
after doing that her survival in Zoo would have been difficult as seldom a
regular man-eater has known to become comfortable in captivity. Also
maintaining such main-eater tiger is also always a risk as it will keep seeing
its prey all the time in front of its eyes & first thing such tiger will
try is attack the nearest human which would have been constant threat to the
Zoo staff! And still the issue of the two cubs would have been there as we all
saw how much efforts were required even to sight Avani & here we are
talking about tranquilizing three tigers at a time! And do mind eleven months
old tiger cub may not be able to hunt but it can surely injure seriously to any
human! So the risk was always there to capture all this lot & this is where
conflict is happening between forest dept & all others!

I repeat, I don’t support killing of Avani or any tiger or even
a snake but issue of being right or wrong does changes depending up one which
side you are on & unfortunately humans rule this world not tigers is a
bitter fact to which even forest dept is not exception! As scene must be there that any person in khaki (uniform color of forest
as well police dep’t) would have been thrashed by the mob, had they not done
something on the front of stopping Avani’s terror! And then as the second quote
of Corbett terror can lead to serious rumors especially when three man –eaters
tigers are roaming in an area over some hundred square kilometers with
thousands of humans also along, the mess it must have created we just can’t
imagine!

Now coming to the controversy of
appointing a sharp shooter (read hunter) named some Shafath Ali & his Son
Asgar! Well, how many of us can take the job of killing a man-eater
tigress which has killed nearly thirteen people for sure, injured equal numbers
as killed along many cattle amidst human settlements & yes which roams
mostly at nights! Sorry, leave killing the tigress, try catching her alive by
shooting a dart at her & tranquilize her! To my knowledge the dart has to be fired at least from twenty meters distance,
which a tigress on charge can cover in fraction of seconds’ not even minutes, interesting,
isn’t it! As even if you are a paid veterinary doctor affiliated to forest dept
for this job but how many are skilled to do it as well how many times in your
career you get to use such skill as firing a dart at a charging man-eater tigress,
will you do it my wild life lover friends as I won’t even dream of doing it
leave trying, is I can surely say for myself! About finding her at night &
killing her, here one more thing I will like to ask, the entire forest dept was
combing that area for months with news tracking. And if post sun set, news
comes about sighting of the man eater tigress which you are desperately
searching for, what you will do as an operation in charge? Tell the news barer
to keep watch on the tigress till morning or keep following her with dart gun
till the morning sun comes up! Sorry if I am sarcastic but I am really curious
to know what your or mine course of action would have been as officer in charge
in such case!

Well I think all above paragraphs
might have made you think I am happy & satisfied with Avani’s death by gunshot,
well I am not but ask the very same question to the concerned forest officers
& see what they answer! They too are humans & their job was, is &
will be to protect tigers along with all other species in which humans also
comes! Remember, Avani wasn’t first tigress which became man-eater
& shot dead, the important aspect we need to look on is, she can be the last
tiger for dying so & what we will be doing for this outcome, is what I will
ask to every person & not just to some wild life lovers!Few decades back there were just twelve hundred odd tigers left
in this once tiger rich country; with everybody’s efforts the figuer is nearly
doubled today yet in just last one year nearly fifty plus tigers died in this
very country, what have we done on that front? Today the cry is over one Avani,
as she got shot by the very dept (read forest) which was supposedly to be
protecting her but then its only due to this forest dept she survived till she
can give birth to two cubs, isn’t this we forgetting?In this country, tigers die on highways under speeding vehicles,
tigers die on railway tracks passing through forests without any barriers
around the tracks, tigers die due to electrocuting in the fencing around the
farms, tigers die due to poaching, tiger die due to mob lynching as poor fellow
has to come to village in open day light for search of water in summers, tigers
die due to its fights with other tiger
over territory as we the humans are every day encroaching on tiger’s
homes for our needs(I refrained using word greed) & yet nobody does
anything about it! But just today we killed one tiger that too from
pressure from another group of humans only who are not from Pune or Mumbai, we
are trying to paint entire system as tiger killer, isnt something is seriously
wrong? And if it’s a wrong act then it’s not just forest dept but every one of
us is a tiger killer & eventually one day we will kill every specie not
just tigers, without even using a gun but just making them die by their own
fate which we are writing for them!

Avani, all I wish is your death won’t go in vain as even after
your this much hyped death we the humans doesn’t learn that it’s not mistake of
some govt dept, its mistake of entire society of we the humans that we don’t
know how to protect a tiger or even a sparrow, then indeed we don’t deserve the
tigers, is the harsh reality, God Bless Tigers!